The Resons why some Christian Schools Ban J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Book Series

There have been many reasons within multiple countries why J.K. Rowling's famous Harry Potter book series has been banned. Most of which link back to the fear of witchcraft, the darkness of the events that unravel in the book, and the encouragement of negative acts. The infamous Landover Baptist Church made a satirical comment that "true Christians only touch a Harry Potter book when they are throwing it onto a fire". Believe it or not, this burning hatred rang true for many Christian institutions.

St. Mary's Island Church of England school found the books offensive due to its content. They stated that the Bible says that witchcraft and demons are very real and that Harry Potter does nothing but make something dangerous seem fun. Due to this belief, the fear that the portrayal of good witches and wizards will lead children to view the Bible not as strongly as before. Carol Rockwood, the head school teacher, ended up banning the book from the school in order to maintain the strength of the Bible.

There are some that believe that the dark events portrayed in the books is enough to leave children with frightening "nightmare" images that could influence their outlook on, not only the Bible, but other everyday things. Harry was an orphan whose parents were violently killed and grew up in a verbally abusive household only to find out his first year of school that his parent's murderer still exists only to murder Harry. Many of these concepts, if not all, are commonly found in small children's nightmares and many of the creatures described in the books could potentially be in the nightmares as well.

Many people also claim that the Harry Potter books encourage negative behavior. They claim that Harry lies, defies authority, and ignores laws which could potentially influence children to fall into the same behavioral pattern. This is a common belief within parents of families with young children. Most of the time, this challenge has not spawned any banning of the book. R. Wolf Baldassarro claims that the book has been banned due to violent behavior or witchcraft in "Bend, Oregon; Cedar Rapids, lowa; Salamanca, New York; Whittier, California; Pace, Florida; Arab, Alabama; Fresno, California; Bristol, New Hampshire; and Ontario, Canada".( These are only a few of the locations where the books themselves have been challenged. Harry Potter is a fictional book series that many do not agree with due to the use of witchcraft, Harry's delinquent behavior, and the dark creatures and happenings.

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